Union Budget no gender bender

Feb 20, 2013, 05.04AM ISTTNN[ Subodh Varma ]

The Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA), a Delhi based advocacy group that tracks government spending, has found serious shortcomings in the gender budgeting exercise of the central government.

NEW DELHI: To remove various disadvantages that women face in India, the Union government introduced Gender Responsive Budgeting (or Gender Budgeting) in 2005-06. It meant that high-flying promises on empowering women were to be backed by financial outlays and that a gender perspective was to imbue all policy making.

It was always a tough call - from the home, to the workplace and generally in society women are treated like second class citizens. Over 52 percent women suffer from anaemia, the child sex ratio continues to decline and is now 914, maternal mortality is still high at 212, female work participation is just 26 percent in rural areas and an abysmal 14 percent in urban areas, and crimes against women increased by nearly 30 percent between 2006 and 2010. So, a huge and honest effort was needed to correct this through not just financial outlays but legislation, and deep going social change.

The Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA), a Delhi based advocacy group that tracks government spending, has found serious shortcomings in the gender budgeting exercise of the central government.

The Union Government introduces a Gender Budget Statement (GBS) every year along with the general budget. The GBS captures the total quantum of resources earmarked for women in a financial year. There are two parts to it - Part A reflects those schemes in which 100 percent funds are meant for women and girls and Part B enlists those with at least 30 percent but not the entire amount of funds earmarked for women and girls.

Since in many cases no clear cut guidelines exist on how to provide for financial outlays for women, ministries and departments have been playing fast and loose with their reporting. The assumptions behind reporting allocations under Part B of the GBS remain questionable, CBGA said.

Central ministries such as Minority Affairs, Earth Sciences, Panchayati Raj and Labour & Employment report 100 percent of their allocations in Part B. This means that they are claiming that all their expenditure is for the benefit of women.

Even in Part A, the problem of misreporting persists. For instance, Indira Awas Yojana continues to figure in Part A, despite the fact that 100 percent of its allocations do not benefit women, CBGA said.

Many important sectors such as food, finance and water supply do not figure at all in the gender budget statement. In fact only 33 of the 53 ministries and independent departments have any gender budgeting of any sort.

Except for the Department of Rural Development and a few other ministries where there are either clear policy guidelines to ensure benefits to women or gender disaggregated data, in most other cases, the assumptions behind reporting funds in Part B of the GBS remain unclear.

Specific outlays for curbing violence against women are also listed in the GBS. Spread across five ministries, the government spent only Rs.210.65 cr on such measures as rehabilitation of girl child labour, short stay homes and sensitisation of central police forces.

CBGA has recommended that gender budgeting should be made mandatory, details of schemes and beneficiaries should be provided, guidelines and norms should be clearly laid out for each ministry.